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Is it ethical for a teacher, school administrator or superintendent in the public system to send their own children to a private school? It is a lot more common than you may think. I find it hypocritical. I’ve always said that if you are a manager at BMW you don’t show up with a Mercedes!

The BMW-Mercedes argument is seductive; I used it myself to explain my exit from the church. The church’s theology is a Model T Ford, and mine a stripped down, badly dented Kia.

But at least my headlights still work.

Your analogy doesn’t work in this case, however, because kids aren’t cars and education isn’t a product to be sold — it’s an experience to be lived.

When a teacher signs with a school board, she commits to providing children with a quality education, consistent with prescribed curricula and educational practice. She also commits to treating children with respect and behaving within acceptable personal boundaries. Good teachers go beyond that, coaching teams, leading bands and choirs, directing musicals and so on.

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Indeed, the very best teachers go far beyond contractual requirements. But that “beyond” does not extend into their homes and family life. Teachers (ditto: administrators etc.), like the rest of us, have every right to private lives that are only as “connected” to their jobs as they choose to make them. How they raise their children fits 100 per cent into that category. Unless a teacher is proven to be abusive or otherwise grossly inappropriate, the question of how his kids are raised has nothing to do with his job.

Put simply: where a teacher’s kids attend school is a private matter, and therefore none of the public’s business.

To return to your automotive argument, when you sell BMWs but drive a Mercedes, you aren’t categorically declaring that Mercedes is a better car. You’ve just decided it’s a better choice for you; maybe you got a sweeter deal or prefer the handling characteristics.

Likewise, placing your kid in a private school doesn’t necessarily imply a negative judgment of the public system. Nor does it mean you necessarily believe the school you’ve chosen is, in some absolute sense, better. It just means that, for any number of reasons, you’ve decided it’s a better place for your particular kid and his/her personality, learning style, social style and so on.

Sometimes, parents resent that their kid’s teacher can “afford” to send their kid to a private school, while they can’t. But many people whose kids attend the privates (schools, that is) make a considerable personal sacrifice to allow that to happen. Vacations are foregone, housing decisions kept more affordable, Timmies vs. Starbucks. No, these decisions aren’t open to everyone — but then, neither is that BMW or the Mercedes. That’s why some people who sell a Mercedes drive a Ford.

At the end of the day, the only question with which a parent should concern himself is how well a teacher opens their kid’s eyes and ears to the wonders of education and the richness of life itself. Whether he wears a ponytail, she lives in a same-sex relationship, or they send their kid to a private school is absolutely not a parent’s concern

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